Raffi Cavoukian

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Biographical Information

"Raffi Cavoukian, the founder of Child Honoring, is a renaissance man known to millions simply as Raffi: a renowned Canadian troubadour, record producer, systems thinker, author, entrepreneur and ecology advocate, once called “the most popular children’s singer in the English-speaking world” (Washington Post). A generation saw him in concert and grew up singing his signature song Baby Beluga. “Beluga grads” often tell him that they’re now raising their own kids with his songs.

"A recipient of the Order of Canada and the United Nations’ Earth Achievement Award, Raffi has recently been awarded two honorary degrees: Dr of Music, from the University of Victoria, and Dr of Letters, from the University of British Columbia. He is associated with many NGOs, including the Council of Human Development, the Darwin Project Council, the Center for Partnership Studies, the Center for Children's Health and the Environment, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

"In his three-decade career, Raffi has refused all commercial endorsement offers, and his triple-bottom-line company, Troubadour Music, has never directly advertised or marketed to children. He is a passionate advocate for a child’s right to live free of commercial exploitation.

"Raffi has now become a “global troubadour,” lecturing and networking to help create a viable future: a sustainable, child-friendly world for ourselves and for those to come. His original philosophy, Child Honoring, is gaining support among eminent thinkers as a holistic organizing principle for a culture of peace. The anthology Child Honoring (ed. Cavoukian and Olfman, 2006) has a Foreword by the Dalai Lama, who also appears in conversation with Raffi on the 2007 DVD, Raffi Renaissance."

Affiliations

• Honorary Member, Club of Budapest: Members
• Advisory Board, David Suzuki Foundation
• Council, Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence